Vanishing Inc. Magic reviews by Larry Brodahl

First, let me state that I'm not a mentalist, nor a performer of mental magic. I do some close up and mainly parlor/banquet shows.

And yet, I found 3 items that I can use. Not in the way the author probably intended, but that's a good thing.

My favorite books are those that present tricks that I can springboard off of, whether it's by using the plot line, the methodology, or whatever.

This book fits in this category.

Even the material I will never use will be filed away in the ol' grey matter and might be exhumed one day.

Good book.

I judge books by either the number of tricks that I will ACTUALLY do, or by the number of ideas it sets off in my brain. In both cases, this books does very well.

With only 1 very quick perrusal of this ebook under the belt, I have 4 items that I'm going to be thrilled to do. 2 of them have already been tested on the spouse and both fooled her. (And we know how hard that is to do).

1 of the items used a simple well-known sleight, and the other used a simple gimmick. I already knew the sleight, and the gimmick took all of 5 minutes to make, so this book is already marked for re-reading and re-reading.

And as far as setting off ideas in my brain goes, so far I've slapped my forehead about 10 times and said, "D'oh - why didn't I think of that?". Some clever people in this book.

The layout of the book is excellent, and has a simple usable way of jumping directly to the trick or author that you like, or quickly bouncing back to the index.

The only real complaint I have is that a couple of the links in the book that point to demos of some of the tricks are expired and don't work.

All in all, for the money, this is a very nice book with some very usable material.

Unbelievably well thought out and produced item. I've started using it for a Confabulation type routine, and it's absolutely perfect.

Delightful idea. SHOULD be a full size clipboard. And MY envelope was folded along on side, which renders it unusable.

Boy, this one is out of the ballpark! A fantastic device. Rechargable, yet holds a charge for a long----long-----long time!

The actual amount of smoke you get is amazing. I had one of the previous "smoke" gimmicks, and after about 10 firings, an anemic trickle was all you would get. Not with this baby. Thick, "sticky" smoke. Just perfect.

I use this for parlor and stage more than closeup, and the amount of smoke is perfectly visible.

Perhaps the most important thing though is that the tubing does NOT contain any wiring. My previous gimmick did, and so I was afraid to wear it during long drives from gig to gig. This beast? No problem.

There is no downside to this device that I can see.

Very nice book. Well written with some really good forces that I'd never heard of, and some devilish variations on ones thta I did know.

Well worth the price, even if all you do is worry other magicians.

Not too impressed with this, which is surprising, considering how VanishingInc is normally so reliable.

First, the descriptions of one of the "tricks" is misleading. It's not actually a LIE DETECTOR, which was what I was hoping it would be, since I have a routine already based on this for closeup and I would be able to SUPER-SIZE it and do on stage. But - no. Only detects if the final statement is a lie or not.

Secondly the download didn't have chapters or even a PDF explaining that at "such-and-such" a time, the FORTUNE TELLER information would be found. This meant a lot of searching.

Third, there's a really, really cute idea that is a BONUS routine. EXCEPT the explanation of how to build it is horrible. Mr. Michaels basically starts to explain it and then just wimps out by saying things like, "You'll figure it out", and "It's just some arts and crafts".

Perhaps if he hadn't wasted a LOT of time explaining (multiple times) how to f*rce a card, he would have had the time and energy to explain it.

And, quite frankly I could NOT find any magnets that would work, so knowing where he got his would have been really helpful.

An amazing lecture. I prefer parlor type material, so he really hit a home run on that. But even better, he had some tips and hints that were really, really useful, especially for the D.I.Y. type magicians.

I'm even embarrassed to admit that I learned a new force....that I should have known already. The fact that the move works in close up and parlor/small stage is a bonus.

Really fun, really well done lecture.

Sorry, but I disagree that this is a good item. For $10 less, it would be ok. But not for this price.

No DVD? An online video. That I can't download? Ugh!

The routine/script....not so good, in my opinion. So, I don't understand the reviewers on Genii, etc. that said, "Wait til you see the routine with the sock".

And that's mainly what I was buying. The script/routine. And I don't mind spending money on a good routine.

I bought the Seabrooke Cigarette in Coat 30 years ago for $30, and it was a wonderful purchase.

This is just.....disappointing.

I will do the plot...with my own script...and a different method, since there's at least 3 easy ways to do this.

And I'll downgrade MagicEstate on my Purchase From list.

It's ok. Very reminiscent of a Shufton trick. It has for me one very painful theatrical flaw. You have to turn the envelope sideways to the audience for a few moments, at a below the chest level.

This means, without a stage, the envelope basically disappears for a few moments.

Now, this moment is somewhat justified, and there is a spectator on stage, but this does mean that you MUST have a spectator on stage.

So, it may not fit EVERY routine.

The camo aspect however is very clever.

It does exactly what it says it will. It is as easy to make as he says. It looks as good as he says. And I had a question...so I emailed him. Got back an answer that solved my problem.

This is a heckuva product. Well worth the money.

Even though I've rated this PRETTY GOOD, it actually isn't - at least for me. The video doesn't show, but there are some moves....that I feel aren't very good...that MUST be done. The routine is also somewhat fixed. ie: you will be doing a Bill Sw*tch, with some "extra" handling.

Is it going to be possible to come up with other handlings? Sure. Is that what I was hoping to have to do? No.

However - if you like the exact flow you see in the video, you'll probably like this.

And in fairness, there's a couple of bonus ideas on the video that are really interesting. Just not with a bill.

It's ok. If you watch the video, your handling must EXACTLY conform to what is shown. And to me that's where it loses some points. The handling isn't exactly very visible to a larger audience.

The idea is clever however, the props are well made, so if the handling is ok with you, you'll like it.

I'll stay with the old version.

Good book. Even if you disagree with every point made in the book, you'll still have a lot to argue about with your magic friends. Although, there's not a ton of things to argue about, in my opinion.

Fun and educational.

If you have absolutely no idea how to do the card in sealed bill, then you might like this. If you do know that, you won't get much from this DVD.

And even then, it's misleading, since you will need templates and such *IF* standard size envelopes don't fit in your wallet, etc.

And frankly a couple of the methods shown were horrible. And one of the videos really pointed out how bad, as it took Mr. Robson an inordinately long time to put a pen away.

Then of course, within 30 seconds or so, he then pulls an envelope out of that same pocket. Again taking longer than one would expect.

Love Mr. Wright - love Mr. Robson's Roughing Stick. Do NOT love this dvd.

Fun little product. Very useful for what Shin Lim does, but also useful in certain bill tricks, etc. Very strong for their size.

It's a good product. It takes a few run throughs to get the feel for the gimmick, but it's quite good.

That said, I would NOT let an audience member open the purse unless the only thing in the purse was paper or cloth. Coins are definitely noticeable to the touch, as are most other hard objects.

And if they're examining it forget about it. They'll find a hard object.

But for dual outs - which is what I'm using it for - it is perfect.

Sadly, this trick has an highly misleading video with it. In the video, you see a very wide ribbon....maybe 3/4 or 1" wide.

The needle you will receive will ONLY hold a 1/4" wide ribbon. Not nearly the nice display shown on the video.

And, I don't think the needle is made the way it's explained on the video either.

The trick itself is fine, properly explained, etc...it's just that you won't get that lovely, DRAMATIC, display at the end.

Well, I first want to fix a misconception. This book is NOT 130+ pages. From the first printed page to the last printed page is 128. And even that number is misleading, as there are 22 pages that are strictly pretty pictures and a quote.

Now, the quotes are good, and the pictures - heck, the book in general is gorgeous....but this is NOT a 130+ page book. It's 105 by my count.

And of the 105 pages, some of the pages are dominated by a large picture - sometimes "performance photos" and sometimes fairly redundant ones, such as showing a spread of cards before AND after dividing the spread into reds and blacks.

Secondly, I bought the book because I love parlor and small stage magic, and the book was touted as having some parlor.

Well, certainly not much parlor, which for me raises the cost per page quite high.

The close up material certainly seems eminently do-able, but not my cup of tea.

This book is not one that you'll quickly read. And not only is the prose dense, but the concepts are something you'll have to really think about.

I found myself nodding agreement time and again throughout the book, and consider this one of my best purchases for the year.

It's a good move. Not really difficult at all. Slides by layman and probably 95% of all magicians without a blink.

This is a mixed bag. He's got a couple of cute ideas. But he had ONE idea that lifted this up, as it fixed a long standing problem of mine. But his stuff is practical and usable and I think you'd find something you liked.

This is a beast of a book. It's well written, and explains a ton of material. But I didn't buy it for that.

I wanted to read his philosophy and thoughts on magic, moves, and deception.

And he delivers. Now mind you, I don't agree with some of it, but it makes me think, which a book JUST full of tricks rarely does.

And I particularly liked that when there was a disagreement between what he thinks and what he does, he admits.

This is an excellent switching device, but I have to admit the tabs don't want to stay down for me. And believe me, I've worked that part of the box through about 200 open/shut cycles, and it just is "iffy".

Which doesn't REALLY affect the trick.

I wish it was smaller, as it's difficult for me to carry, but it is one wonderful device.

This is just a taping of Mr. Mullica performing. And it's fun...it's funny, and it's really astounding to see what he considered to be grade "A" material, since some of it I would NEVER have selected.

And most of the time, for experienced magicians, you certainly don't need the explanations.

But watching him work is so much fun.

Fun book and a good read.

Mr. Parr has interesting ideas, and none of them feel like pipe dreams.

His Lippincott trick is very cute, and extremely simple in execution.

And to me, reading some clever material makes me think about why it's clever, and how do I make my own material better. And that's really all I want from a book.

Unfortunately, what Mr. Archer does so well is hard for me to translate into practice. But that's not his fault at all.

The premise is clever, and fun to play with, and the trick certainly delivers.

My only downside was that the gaff had some flaking problems. But it took me all of 5 minutes to cut circles out of construction paper and I was back in business.

Great trick.

You can't even begin to understand how far above EXCELLENT this book is.

It's truly a masterpiece. I've had more fun reading it, trying to apply it's suggestions and thoughts to my own material, and have had a fairly high success rate.

The things I've changed have improved my show. Some slightly, some quite a bit. One topic actually solved a trick I'd been struggling with for 2 years.

Well worth the price.

Great tricks, some of which I experienced for the first time watching these DVD's.

I really enjoyed it, picked up a couple of technical ideas, learned a move or two and even learned and perform one of the tricks he showed.

Marvelous material taught and demo'd in a very informal setting.

Highly recommended.

Can't explain how good this is. I have been some of these moves since the day I purchased the dvd.

It's well explained and visually well-produced material.

My only objection was that there was some repetition when he demo'd a move, but that comes with demos.

Part of my "A" material. Love it.

This would be ranked excellent except for one thing. I have EXTREMELY dry skin, so a couple of important moves are not possible for me.

Which is a shame, since the trick is relatively easy, and it looks wonderful.

I did however slightly change the material you received, since the plastic would tend to get scratched up while attached to a keychain. I simply put clear packing tape of the outside, and all is well.

My admiration for Mr. Archer has no bounds, and this simply increases my opinion of him.

His ideas and themes for tricks are amazing. BLANK NITE is insane. It's clever (won the FOOL US show), and is such a verbally clever idea.

His SOUNDBOX just stunned me. What a clever idea for a 7 Keys routine. It makes sense, has audience interest, and is so simple that you'll kick yourself for not thinking of it.

Well worth the money.

It would be excellent, except that I have extremely dry skin, so cannot roll up the yarn easily.

Other than that, it's clever as all get out, and is explained so clearly that anyone can do it. Unless you have dry skin.

I also was less than successful making the Yo-Yo actually work.

But it is a clever, clean trick.

It's a good book. I'm definitely not in agreement with all of his ideas, but ALL of them are worthwhile thinking about. And this makes the book very good in my mind.

The handling of the tricks are really interesting, and studying the structure of the routines is fun, as they are clever as heck.

Good read.

This is a good trick...if you are doing EXACTLY what the description says. If you want to use this in most situations without the cover of a card stab, it'll be difficult.

But for what it is...a card stab....it's pretty clever. Definitely works as advertised.

Simple and direct.

This book is worth it's weight in gold. I use it frequently on figuring out why new routines aren't getting the response I want. And it's right way more often than not.

This is one of 3 books I've ever read where I sent the author a thank-you note. That's how much I like this book...and the companion book DESIGNING MIRACLES. Very good stuff.

If I could rate this higher, I would. What great material. There's something for everyone. His presentations are impeccable, and the sleight of hand makes you want to cry. Sooo well done.

I refuse to believe anyone could watch this and not come away with ideas and thoughts to work on.

Solid stuff. A+++

This box is beautifully made and does exactly what it says it does.

Clever idea, well implemented. If you're looking for something like this..quit looking. This is it!

Bought this to try out a Tamariz idea, and this silk fits the bill completely. The colors are vibrant, the cloth itself is a nice tight weave.

Beautiful piece.

Bought this to match the King Of Hearts silk in this same design, and it is a perfect match.

Supple cloth, bright colors and precise printing. Nicely done.

These are your typical Bicycle cards, with not-so-typical colors on the back. They come with a couple of nice freebies, including a blank face card, a double backer, and (I believe) a 2 color double backer.

They handle just like your regular cards, they're just prettier.

This is a fun piece to play with. I've done the Sachs' routine for years, and this is some very solid thinking about that trick.

Not too difficult to do and very clearly explained.

And the addition of the bolt trick is very nice. The explanation will make you laugh, but when you try it and it works, it's a blast.

This is a fun watch. I was never privileged to see him in person, so this was a great addition to my library.

Now I didn't really get any NEW material from the DVD, but that wasn't my purpose, so I think this is money well spent.

Properly done, at the right time, I can see this being an absolute miracle.

Unfortunately for me, this won't happen very often.

But it's well built, cleverly thought out, and has a nice set of explanations and ideas.

Good deal for the money.

This is a combinations of ideas that fit together well, and I'm sure will make someone an excellent effect.

That someone isn't me. For whatever reason, I just don't feel the love for this.

But the props are top-notch, the explanations are clear.

Put yourself on the waiting list for this. It is an extremely well built item that performs very cleanly.

The reset's a bit of a pain, but as you get experience with it, it becomes less so.

The explanations for this are fine.

I buy everything that Mr. Stone publishes, but do almost none of it. Why? Because the way he thinks is so interesting. He gives me ideas. And that is worth the price of the book easily.

He's a good author, the illustrations, etc. are fine, and you can certainly follow along with everything he says.

Good book.

If you don't find a lot to love on this DVD set, I can't imagine what you'd be looking for.

He explains every move very clearly and very thoroughly.

I was lucky enough to find his website when he was publishing this on a regular basis, and was just enamored with what I saw. And when it came up for sale, I jumped on the deal.

It's that good.

Not good. Ultra cheap manufacture. Leaky. But it was cheap enough for me to try out a few ideas.

I love Mel Mellers material. And with that being said, this book just reinforces my feelings.

Out of the 29 items in the book, I have tagged 14 as interesting in either concept/premise, method, or both. Almost 50% of the book has something that intrigues me.

I'm usually pretty happy if I get 1 or 2 items in an extremely expensive book. FOURTEEN! That's crazy. And that's not counting some of the gags!

Now I'm not saying I'll end up doing all 14 items...but I'll consider them. And this makes this book worth so much more than the price.

One point of interest...I believe this material was printed previously in MagicSeen Magazine, based copyright page.

It's a good book. Not great, but solid. It has some great ideas on scripting with the KORAN Medallion that I'm sure makes it much more impressive than the trick originally reads. I'm probably going to transfer those ideas to COLLARD, which is the same basic idea.

I also was impressed by the handling of the Linking Finger Rings. I don't do the trick..and probably never will, but this handling makes a lot of sense.

All in all, I'm glad I got it, and I enjoyed it, so what more could you ask for?

Not a bad book, but probably could have been edited more. There's quite a bit of "interview" information, which is interesting, but not pushing forward any ideas about comedy. Questions like: "Last TV Series you binge watched". Meh.

Now that type of question is expected in a magazine (which all of these articles are from), but they could have skipped it for the book.

There's not much actual hard info on topics like "HOW TO WRITE A JOKE", or "HOW TO DESIGN A PIECE OF COMEDY"....it's much more generic, which is also to be expected.

But there are some nice bits and a couple of very interesting tricks.

So I'm overall pleased with it. I may try a few of the tricks, and I'll definitely re-read to ensure I didn't miss anything.

I've only used it for a day or two, so I can't comment on it's ability to RESTORE my hands in any way.

I do know that it rubs in easily and (most importantly) has ZERO ODOR. I hate smelling like lotion.

It does appear to improve my grip on cards, as normally I can't do a one-handed top palm with just my hands. I HAVE to put on something. So this product works at least as well as my other lotions.

It does appear (although not tested empirically) that it last slightly longer than my normal lotion.

So in my book:
1. it's as good as anything I have already
2. it has NO ODOR.
3. appears to last longer.

I'm very happy.

I purchased this AFTER the masterclass, so I saw none of this live.

And the first 2 videos are excellent. Lots of good work on the moves. Certainly wish there were photographs of grips and hand positions though, as it's not as easy to follow while trying to hit the pause button with your elbow.

The final video, which is the live support video (Q/A), is horrible. It's almost COMPLETELY a shot of the Zoom session in GALLERY MODE! Which means you can't see Mr. Swiss's hands or deck in any detail. There are a few moments where it is JUST his hands, but most of the time you're watching a screen with 15 other people staring out, and a tiny box containing Mr. Swiss.

I purchased this recently and just couldn't get it to work properly. Contacted the wizards at VI, and went through quite a few iterations of steps to get it to work.

But work it did! (User error, btw).

And it works well. Very clever, very sneaky.

I too wish the elastic was sewn flatter, and one of these days I'll stop by a seamstress/tailor in the area and see if they can't make me a different one.

But all in all...great item.

It's a thinking man's book, in my opinion. Yes, you get tricks. But you also get a look at how the author thinks. Some of the ideas on the Magic Square were so interesting...and practical.

His take on crib sheets, while not surprising to me, were full of the practical points you need to really use the idea. I like that. When I'm told an idea or principle, I want to know EXACTLY how to do it the right way. And he does that.

The only thing I didn't like is the section on cold readings, but that's only because I'll NEVER do them. But I'm still willing the bet the information is completely accurate.

Great book that I'll be re-reading for years to come.

These glasses are very similar to ones sold as collapsible camping glasses. BUT - these have a flat bottom! And for certain effects, that really is important.

I bought 2, for no good reason. But to me, these are like thumb tips. There's always a use for them somewhere.

Nicely made, the shell case is a bit awkward, but does protect the glass.

I think these will come in handy, and there's not many products I say that about. Good job!

This is not only very clever, it's extremely usable.
The props are very well manufactured and should last a very long time. The explanation video was just ok though. There is a part where he talks about a 'crease', and that's all he says.

I would have like more of a close up explanation. I almost feel that the video was rushed a touch for no good reason.

But, it works. It's practical. And it's a fooler.

I'm giving this 5 stars while ignoring the video. The item you receive for this is well made, very well thought out, and a ton more versatile than I thought.

The video is good. But Mr. Stone decided to do it in pantomime - probably so anyone in any language can view and learn from the video.

The problem is that the video gets slower paced because of the need to constantly "flag" where you should pay attention to.

But you can learn from it everything you need to know and Mr. Stone provides a BOATLOAD of ideas. Just a little slowly for my taste.

I actually saw Mr. Stone in lecture do this...about 8 different times, and he fooled me everytime. But it wasn't until I purchased APPEARING GLASS that I decided I needed the SPLASH effect.

All good.

Not a huge fan of Mr. Maven, nor of mentalism in general, but I do appreciate thinking.

And he was a thinking person. Clever, well read, and a fine author.

These articles were written for VERY public consumption, and that I think kept them from being too "in depth".

I did enjoy the articles, but I got very little actual knowledge or information from them that I think is useful.

However, they are, I think, a valuable keepsake of this author, and they illustrate just how much Mr. Maven cared about our craft.

I'm almost 70 years old. I've read a lot of books, watched many DVDs.

But this book....is one of the top 5 I've ever had the pleasure to read.

Yes, it's got a ton of tricks, and stunts, and gags, but most importantly, it has heart. Reading his thoughts on performing, past experiences, his take on character development.....truly inspirational. It makes you long to have been around during those days, and to have met those people.

But I do disagree with some of his philosophy and his ideas. Which is perfect. This means that I'll argue long and hard with myself vis-a-vis Mr. Frye's ideas, and I'll gain some knowledge or thoughts that I've never had.

And even though the tricks are (I'm sure) great, it's the little touches, ideas, and clever handlings that mean the most to me.

A dice force handling of the add top and bottom numbers that is absolutely brilliant. An idea with Jumbo cards that thrills me to the bottom of my magical soul.

This book is brilliant, and it's one of a surprisingly small list of books that I will NEVER give away.